


Shorts

by FortuneSnowman



Series: The Next Few Months [3]
Category: Night In The Woods (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, M/M, Post-Canon, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-24 09:35:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17098109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FortuneSnowman/pseuds/FortuneSnowman
Summary: Just a series of shorts from The Next Few Months timeline. Mostly chronological.Happy Longest Night.





	1. Comfort Bea-nket

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp. Guess I'm back at this. Only a little bit, though.
> 
> My process involves outlining the general plot, then whenever I feel like I've got a good dialogue between two characters I'll just write it down and fill it in later. Well, basically these are all expanded conversations I had written up but never gave a story to. It's not that I didn't want to. I really did try to make a third story since I still had some ideas, and in the end I was unsatisfied with the story and STILL had ideas I couldn't use. A lot of what you'll find here wouldn't have had any place to fit into the story, but I really liked writing them. Still wanted to put them out.
> 
> Also it's Longest Night. Felt like now was a good time.

**M:** bea  
  
She didn’t really need a reply right this second.  
  
**M:** beabea  
  
After all, it was late. Nothing but moonlight out her window and a broken streetlight. It would have been the sort of thing you drew to get into an artsy college if all the other street lights weren’t also visibly working just fine. Kind of ruined the somber mood.  
  
**M:** just lemme know if youre up  
  
Really though, it didn’t matter all that much. Mae’s legs were indeed hanging off the edge of her bed, and they were indeed bouncing impatiently against the floor, but that’s fine. She did that all the time mostly.  
  
There just wasn’t anything else to do really. After the thrill of beating Demontower, it kinda lost its charm. Well there was always- oh there she was.  
  
**B:** What?  
  
Mae briefly checked outside her window. Yep, it was still there.  
  
**M:** theres a black cat in my backyard  
  
There was a slight pause, and the bouncing of Mae’s knee returned. In the meantime, she dragged herself over to the window and pressed her face up against the glass again whilst Bea wrote her reply.  
  
**B:** Cool.  
  
**B:** Go to sleep.  
  
**M:** o wait no theres an open pasta container on the ground from our trash  
  
**M:** maybe it was a raccoon  
  
**B:** You’re not sure?  
  
**M:** i didnt get a good look  
  
**M:** actually theres always garfield so maybe cats can like pasta?  
  
**B:** Sure.  
  
**B:** Go to sleep.  
  
**M:** like garfield was a tabby right? so maube black cats like rigatoni???  
  
**B:** Sleep, Mae.  
  
Okay well Bea wasn’t really helping at all. Mae checked out the window once more, looking for any sign of the catcoon.  
  
Nah, it wouldn’t come back until they threw out something with cheese.  
  
**M:** what are you wearing  
  
**B:** Mae.  
  
**B:** It’s two in the morning.  
  
Mae glanced at her computer’s clock. 2:18, so really it was closer to the 2:30 range.  
  
**M:** so pajamas or what?  
  
**B:** Brand new t-shirt with the word “Sleep” on it.  
  
**M:** hot  
  
**B:** I’m muting the laptop and going back to sleep now.  
  
**M:** oh come on  
  
Mae finally focused herself down in front of the laptop, leg bouncing again.  
  
**M:** beabea  
  
**M:** i cant sleep  
  
And then there was that usual Bea uncomfortably long wait. The kind she gave off when she was being a grump who didn’t want to care. She was bad at not caring.  
  
**B:** Fine. What’s up?  
  
**M:** i dunno. just all like  
  
**B:** Antsy?  
  
**M:** i was gonna say hyper  
  
**M:** thinking about gregg and angus  
  
There was a short pause before Bea’s next message came in, during which time Mae hopped up from bed and began pulling her boots on. When the beep of a message sounded, she rushed back over to check the screen.  
  
**B:** I know. Me too.  
  
**B:** Just try to get some sleep. You can talk to them about it in the morning.  
  
**M:** it is the morning  
  
**B:** I’m going back to sleep now.  
  
**M:** hey can i come over?  
  
**B:** Seriously?  
  
**B:** Remember when I said it’s 2 in the morning?  
  
**M:** come on, ill be real quiet  
  
Another pause. She couldn’t resist this though. Mae could totally turn up the charm if she needed to.  
  
**B:** Promise to go to sleep?  
  
**M:** sure whatever  
  
**B:** Fine.  
  
Well that was disappointing. Whatever, doesn’t matter, she could save turning up the charm for later. She was a charm machine like that, an unlimited well of… okay whatever, focus.  
  
Mae shut her laptop, threw on her coat, and made her way downstairs. Didn’t feel like putting on a whole new set of clothes. Besides, she hadn’t slept so technically it wasn’t tomorrow yet, so… same clothes.  
  
Not that this was something she needed to justify to herself, but- hold that thought.  
  
Mae stopped on the second floor, double taking on their bird cage. Hm.  
  
She slowly reached up and lifted the sheet from over it. She peered inside and gave the cage a nudge. The bird within remained still. But like… it was still on its little perch, so…  
  
Do birds just stay upright when they die? Mae had heard that’s how horses were sometimes. Either horses or like, hippos, and she was pretty certain it wasn’t hippos. Where did that thought even come from? She nudged the cage again and the bird within gave a brief flutter this time. Okay, good, not dead. Maybe it’s bones were just getting all old and creaky after all these years.

  
“How are you still alive?” Mae whispered to it. The bird gave no indication that it had heard her, and so Mae narrowed her eyes into an accusing glare. Rude. “You’re gonna die one day. I’m gonna eat you” She hissed. “In either order”  
  
Okay okay whatever. Mae made her way down to the ground floor, hopping over that one creaky step as she did. This house was so much different when all the lights were out like this. She could see herself living in a place like this though, it suited her. Well she did live in it already, so...  
  
Focus, focus. She shut the door gently behind her on the way out. Huh. This kinda felt like being a teenager again, sneaking out of the house on a school night. She really should’ve done that back when she was a teen, but Mom was never too picky about her going out. Missed opportunities.  
  
“If I ever have a kid, I need to ground them so they can disobey me” Mae mumbled to herself, heading up the hillside.

  
Actually now that she was outside, her coat felt like… excessively warm. It was one of those days where the weather just didn’t want to be consistent, and it was all way too warm for January.  
  
That usually meant it’d be crazy cold again in like a day or two. Mother Nature was weird like that.  
  
Okay, climbed up on this guy’s porch, back up to get a running start…  
  
A quick series of jumps later and Mae was balancing, arms outstretched, along the power line heading uphill. Maybe Mother Nature was looking out for her specifically. She hadn’t been able to do this in a while what with all the ice.  
  
Auntie Nature. Mae could get behind that.  
  
She shifted her weight, the wire leaned sharply to the side, and Mae hopped up onto Bea’s windowsill whilst ignoring the big statue staring at her while she did it. She didn’t need to take judgements from a statue.  
  
One quick knock on the glass later… nothing happened.  
  
But on the contrary, the second time she did it nothing happened again. See, this is why those romance movies were stupid. Throwing pebbles could never work. Maybe a fist-sized rock. You just had to be careful it wasn’t any bigger than that, or… well, the obvious happened.  
  
The third time, she banged on the glass and as she was doing so the curtain inside was swung open with a very displeased looking girlfriend inside muttering something to herself as she unlocked the window.  
  
“You knew I was coming!” Mae chastised her, slipping inside.  
  
Normally she’d be thinking how depressing this room was, but it was actually significantly nicer looking now that Bea had had a month to like… actually put a little effort into unpacking. Just a little though.  
  
“I dozed off, it’s late, get off my back” Bea groaned, rubbing her eyes. “And I thought you’d be using the door like a normal person”  
  
“I didn’t want to wake up your dad. I don’t think he likes me”  
  
“Can’t possibly imagine why” Bea snarked. Without another word, she locked the window again and headed back over to bed, immediately laying down.  
  
Huh. She’d lied about the shirt. Same old boring pajamas  
  
Mae took just a moment to check if Bea’s record player was running. Not tonight at least, which meant she didn’t have to reset it, and so she tossed her jacket off onto the floor, pulled her boots off, and climbed in.  
  
A good ol’ sleepover. Mae grinned to herself, letting her head hit the pillow. Hadn’t had one of these in years. Well like, before she’d gotten back from college anyway. “So, like-”  
  
“Sleep” Bea hissed sharply, turned away from Mae and towards the wall.  
  
“Right right” Mae nodded along.  
  
Well okay now this was kind of lame. She twiddled her fingers, her ear gave a few twitches, and…  
  
Yeah, this was boring. She could try to sleep, but it wasn’t going to work.  
  
Mae looked over and whispered a quick “Hey”  
  
Bea meanwhile pretended to be asleep. She would have been a good faker if not for the lack of snoring. Mae was pretty sure she didn’t even know she did it. Definitely no sleeping beauty, but Mae’s dad was still worse.  
  
“How far away is Bright Harbor?” Mae whispered again.  
  
Bea remained silent a few moments more, then sighed aloud and mumbled “Three hours drive”  
  
“That’s not too bad is it?” Mae asked.  
  
Bea shrugged. “When you’re not the one driving. Go to sleep”  
  
“I can’t. I used to get like this the night before field trips too”  
  
Bea sighed and turned on her back, staring up at the ceiling along with Mae. “I couldn’t sleep back before I moved here”  
  
Oh damn. That was probably a medical thing. “Like, at all?”  
  
“I mean the night before I moved here. I slept before that” Bea clarified, hearing the pure surprise in Mae’s voice.  
  
“Oh”  
  
Probably could’ve figured that out.  
  
Mae quietly thought back, and began mumbling out “I once had a fever of like, a hundred and four and I couldn’t sleep. I kept seeing stuff that wasn’t there. My grandma drove me to the hospital and I threw up in a cup”  
  
“That’s…” Bea trailed off. What do you even say to something like that? “What was wrong with you?”  
  
Mae shrugged. “I dunno, I was really little. I just remember throwing up in the cup. It was like one of those paper cups from water coolers. I think we were still in the waiting room when I did”  
  
Bea spoke up, cutting her off “I think I’m okay with not hearing the rest of this story”  
  
And so the two fell quiet. “Right. Sorry” Mae whispered back. She went back to drumming her fingers on her stomach and looking around the ceiling for anything of interest.  
  
Heh. The ceiling light kinda looked like a boob.  
  
Mae reached over to nudge Bea, and judging by the sudden sudden intake of breath she probably just woke her up from dozing off again. “Hey, when you said before you moved here, did you mean Possum Springs or this apartment?”  
  
Bea took a deep breath, rubbing her eye again. “Both” she mumbled. “Mae, seriously. You promised you’d sleep”  
  
“I can’t. I’m all like-”  
  
“Try, Mae” Bea harshly cut her off, rolling onto her side again to face away once more. “Shut your eyes and try”  
  
Instead, Mae rolled them. “Fine, whatever”  
  
Then she obediently settled in and shut her eyes. Didn’t matter, this wasn’t going to work. She couldn’t go to sleep even when she wanted to, and right now she didn’t, so it was like… double no sleeping. Doublesomnia. That was probably a medical term.  
  
Mae waited a few moments more, thinking mostly about… well, nothing. There was Gregg and Angus, there was that record player she kinda wanted to turn on, there was just sleeping in general. Maybe space dragon, that’d be a good idea. She could think about how to draw one. What even was a space dragon? She figured it was just a dragon in a space helmet but dragons were magical. They definitely didn’t need helmets. That being the case, a lot of dragons probably died in bike riding accidents.  
  
Okay, this is stupid.  
  
Mae opened her eyes, ready to complain, and found morning sunlight streaming in through the windows.  
  
She sat up, looked around the room, and spied Bea’s alarm clock off sitting on top of one of the cardboard boxes, saying four hours had passed. Then a glance to her side, and Bea was there, slumbering away with that gentle light snoring of hers.  
  
Huh.  
  
Mae laid back down for now, scooching over to Bea’s side. Okay. Maybe this girl had some nice ideas. Mae leaned In and shut her eyes again for the time being.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is both chronologically first, was written first, and... is the first "chapter." It was going to be the first chapter of the first story (with some more after where this one ends, natch). Didn't go that far as you can guess.


	2. Missed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Angus. I'm awful at writing him, but I love him.

Gregg huffed and he puffed and he yanked with all his might, until the bolt came loose from the forest god’s plastic head.

“Can you really reuse those?” Angus called, shivering. 

By all accounts it was a warm day, but then it was also January so that didn’t mean much. A warm January day was a miserable any other time of year day.

“I’m pretty sure. I looked it up online and they said at most they should be cracked” Gregg explained. Finally he had a full handful of crossbow bolts with which to hunt with.

They weren’t in great condition, and his newer crossbow was practically not even worth being called a weapon with how shoddy it was, but that’s just how Greggory Lee lived. He adapted to stupid shit eating cultists who made him lose his actual _good_ piece of crap crossbow with worthwhile bolts. You can’t keep this man down.

Gregg hurried back over to Angus, smiling widely at least until he saw the plentiful shivers his boyfriend had. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Angus unfolded one of his arms to give a thumbs up and a reassuring smile. “I’m alright. A little cold won’t get me"

“You sure?” Gregg asked. “We can head back if you want”

“It’s fine, really” Angus reassured him again.“I promise. You hunt it, I’ll figure out how to cook it”

That at least seemed to kick some spirits back into Gregg. Less the promise of food, more the promise of Angus having something to do that _he_ enjoyed too.

So he turned and started leading the way deeper into the woods, at a half jog. Angus didn’t actually have to change his pace to keep up, perks of his size.

Gregg was mostly just keeping his eyes on the trees, watching out for squirrels, birds, and… well that’s it to be honest. Nothing much else stayed in trees, and he wasn’t really aiming for a bear or anything huge.

“I think we’re supposed to find somewhere to hunker down, right?” Angus called after him after a short while of walking.

“I think that’s for deer” Gregg answered back, stopping in at some arbitrary spot to bring his little scope up and look the area over. “Or like, I guess it works for everything but we can probably get something small without having to do that”

Of course to be honest Gregg just wasn’t all that interested in sitting still. And to be even _more_ honest he was even less of a fan of having Angus sit still out here when he was already cold.

As Angus approached, Gregg knelt down in as much of a warlike pose as video games could prepare him for.

“So, big week, huh?” Angus asked.

Gregg remained quiet a few moments more, then loosed a bolt off into the trees. There was a short rustling and one bird that quickly flew away after being narrowly missed but no actual success to be found here.

And just like that, Gregg was back up and laughing like he’d been focusing the entire time. “Haha yeah. It’s amazing, everything’s going to plan and I’m still nervous every step of the way”

“Me too. Hard to believe it’s really happening, huh?” Angus gave an apologetic smile at Gregg’s miss, unnoticed as the smaller of the two had already hurried off ahead.

“Which is why we need to actually catch something before we leave. Bright Harbor doesn’t have nearly as many woods” Gregg went on. “And we’ve gotta grab some souvenirs too”

“Souvenirs from where we live?” Angus asked, eyebrow raised.

Gregg waved his own suggestion off. “Well maybe not, but we should make sure we’re not leaving anything undone, right?” He said, dropping to his knee again to line up his sights. “It’s like… thinking about moving away just makes me realize how much stuff I never did here” he half-whispered. Not much reason to be quiet, but he still tried.

Angus knelt down beside his boyfriend to drape a warming arm over his shoulders. A few seconds later, Gregg’s shoulders pushed back slightly from his next shot. A shot which naturally missed.

So Gregg stood himself back up with a sigh, partly at his own aim and moreso at the conversation topic. He hurried on again to lead the way.

“Bug?” A few moments later, Angus spoke. “If you’re having second thoughts-”

Gregg spun on his heels and answered before anyone, even himself could possibly accuse him of that being the case. “I’m not! Never, man! I want to get out of here, and I want to be with you when I do”

The two shared a look. He wasn’t lying, but…

He knelt down again and brought up his crossbow. “It’s just like…” Gregg trailed off, lining up a target again.

Another loosed bolt whipping through the air, another total failure to make contact.

“There’s a lot to miss” Angus finished for him.

Gregg took a deep breath and stood upright once more, letting his shooting arm hang for now. “Yeah”

The two of them stood quietly for a few moments more. Neither could really blame one another for it, of course.

So Angus made a show of looking off into the distance after Gregg’s last shot, at which point he said “You’re kind of awful at this, bug”

It took a moment more before the words processed, and Gregg burst into a laughing fit. He wandered over beside Angus, leaning against him and wrapping an arm around the big fella. “Oh yeah I’m terrible at this” he snickered out.

An extra large hand gave an affectionate and ever so encouraging pat on Gregg’s back, and he couldn’t help but smile and nudge Angus back.

“I just know that I love you more than I’m going to miss Possum Springs” Gregg finally said. “But I’m still going to miss it”

Angus grinned, knelt down to leave a kiss on Gregg’s cheek, and finally waved a hand to hurry Gregg onward. Finally the two separated, and Gregg lead the way onwards once more. Angus gave a sigh. One of content as he followed his love deeper into the woods. “Alright, let’s go see how many more we can miss”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This short was the only one of these six that didn't exist before I set out to put up this little series of one-shots. It felt wrong not to include Gregg and Angus.


	3. The "S" Word

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was kinda inevitable.

“Do you want to have sex?”

Bea paused her tapping, glancing up from the keyboard in Mae’s direction. The smaller of the two was on her back with a horror novel raised up into the air to read while Bea did her online class work sitting beside her.

So naturally after a few short moments Bea mumbled “... No” and sat back, watching Mae who in turn watched her.

And Mae might have just returned to her book or not for the staring. “What?”

“Nothing” Bea shrugged. “I’m genuinely curious how you’re going to try to talk me into this”

Mae rolled over onto her stomach, shut her book, and hopped up from Bea’s bed while stretching out. “I don’t think I should. I think I count as a creeper or something if I try to talk you into sex”

“Nice of you” Bea mumbled before focusing back on her work.

“I’m still super bored though”

Bea shrugged. “You can head home if you want. I’m gonna be busy with this for a while”

“Nah. Then I’d just be bored at home” And so Mae went about her usual process for when she was bored. That being to swing Bea’s closet open and start grabbing unpacked boxes, turning around with each in hand to ask “What’s in this one?”

A quick glance up. “Uh… My old Scout stuff I think?”

“This one?”

“Supplies from high school”

“This one”

“Don’t remember. Just crap from my shelves back before we moved I think? Maybe some books?”

Well that could be good. Mae set that one down and went about rifling through it for goodies. Goodies however weren’t really to be found here. Instead there was… let’s see… a Rubik’s cube of all things. Unsolved, naturally. A box of q-tips, oh there were a few drawings. Bea actually used to be good at drawing. Or like, almost good. There was what looked like a protective case for… well, something. Okay, this was definitely the plug for something. That about summed it up, really, a whole lot of “something”s.

“Why do you keep so much old junk?” Mae asked, taking the Rubik’s cube and fiddling with it while she re-sat herself down on Bea’s bed.

Bea shrugged uncommitedly. “Funny coming from the girl with the sewage encrusted football helmet on her nightstand”

“There’s junk and there’s treasure, Bea” Mae snarked back, focusing on the cube a while longer. It took only a minute or two more before she set it down on the floor, newly solved. She’d always been good at those. Thinking about it now, it kind of made her feel good to know she was actually better than Bea at something smarts-related.

And yet… she was back to being bored. With a huff, Mae laid herself down to stare at the ceiling again. “You sure you don’t want to have sex?”

“I’m pretty sure that I’m sure. Where’s this coming from anyway? Aren’t you a virgin?”

“Iunno” Mae shrugged, holding a hand up in front of her eye to pretend she was squishing Bea’s head. “We’re a couple, we’re around each other like all the time, you’ve already seen me naked, and we’ve got the room to ourselves. Is it really still weird?”

Bea looked up from her laptop to accusingly mention “I’ve  _ unwillingly _ seen you naked, and… yeah, it’s weird for me”

“Fair enough I guess” Still, that left Mae with nothing to do. Actually this probably set the tone for their whole relationship. Not that she was complaining, but still. “I bet in like ten years you’re gonna be making me sleep on the couch and everything”

“I’m definitely going to try. It’s not like you listen to me as it is”

“Name one time I didn’t listen to you” Mae asked. All Bea had to do was send her a look to indicate that right now was a perfect example. “Fine. Name two times”

“Girl Scout cookies”

“Three”

“Shoplifting at Fort Lucenne”

Finally Mae smirked and let it drop. “You know what? I don’t have to justify myself to you” 

Bea snickered quietly, shaking her head and trying to return to what she was doing. ‘Trying’ being the word. Of course now the thought was in her mind, and Mae would just keep being bored and making her boredom well known. It was just...

This was going nowhere. She sighed. “I’m just still not super comfortable with the idea of… like…” she trailed off.

They both knew the answer, of course. “Because I’m a girl?” Mae asked.

“... yeah”

Yup, that little point again. It seemed to come up more and more the more “serious” the two of them got. Mae only shrugged and picked up her book again. Not that she was sulking, but… it might have been sulking? But also not sulking. Mae didn’t exactly feel entitled to anything, but there was always that thought that she hated. That the two of them were just inherently incompatible.

What’s the  _ proper _ reaction to this, anyway? For Mae it was to get back to her reading and for Bea it was to get back to her work. Just like they they were back where they’d begun.

Well, Mae was. Bea’s keystrokes just weren’t really working out. “Alright, listen” She sighed, shutting her laptop and drawing her tiny girlfriend’s attention. “Let me finish this, and… I don’t know. We can experiment. Just don’t make it weird, alright?”

“I never-” Mae started to say. But this time, she didn’t even need a glare from Bea to know it was better for her to shut up. “Sure. Whatever you want. If you want to, I mean. No pressure”

“I  _ do _ want to. It’s just weird for me”

“I mean, we can-”

All of a sudden they were back to their respective backpedalings.

“Shut it” Bea suddenly quieted the two of them. There was a beat, and they each grew a quiet smile. How like them, right? Alright they were settled. They were good. “It’s alright, really. Just… when I finish this, okay?”

Mae scooted herself over, leaning her head against Bea’s side to prop it up while she read. “Okay”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thought about doing a smut.
> 
> I'm not going to do a smut.


	4. Klarification

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're going to skip any of these, let it be this one. Even in a pointless series of one-shots this is the most pointless.

Mae peeked her head, then subsequently the rest of herself through the large double doors of the church into the chapel. For once there were actually a few people sitting in here.

Was it Sunday? It must have been Sunday.

Oh god, she didn’t even know the day. And she’d just mentally used the lord’s name in vain. That probably counted as using it in vain anyway. Guess that was it then, she was hellbound.

Might as well get this over with before the big man upstairs realized he had a blasphemer in his house and set her on fire or something. If it was good enough for Rubello it was probably good enough for God.

Mae hurried herself up the center aisle of the chapel, intentionally ignoring eye contact with anyone in here. She hadn’t seen most of these people since she’d been a wee little shit, and to be honest that was alright with her. They could stay in those memories.

Pastor K, though not preaching, was still stood at the central podium with a pen in hand scribbling something on an unseen paper. Wonder if there’s a commandment about doing church paperwork on that. Whatever.

Mae waved her hand as she approached, drawing Pastor K’s attention.

“Hey, Pastor…” And as Mae started to ask, she trailed off as a thought stuck in her mind.

Pastor K of course waited patiently, giving a gentle “Hm?” Not that it helped much. Mae was lost in her own little world.

And just as suddenly as Mae trailed off, she was back. “Hey so, weird question”

“Yes?”

Mae took a deep breath, readied herself, and spat out “Is your name Kate or Karen?”

And this… well this at least kept the pastor’s attention, who stared at Mae like she’d grown an extra head. Understandably so. “... what?”

Deep breath “I could’ve sworn you said both when we met, and I wasn’t sure. And it felt awkward to ask since we’d just met, and I figured we wouldn’t see each other again. And then I started coming to see you a lot and it felt awkward because we’ve known each other so long” And exhale. It’d all come out in one big huff, Mae wanting to get this over with as long as possible. Like, there was no ruder way to ask an already rude question, right? Just rip that bandaid off.

Pastor K thought on it a moment, and have a simple shrug in response. “Well… they’re both nicknames”

Ah. Well. That was… relieving? Well it was stupid, but relieving. “Have you ever actually told me your real name?”

“It’s Katherine. You can still just call me Pastor K though” she said simply.

Mae squinted accusingly. “Karen isn’t a short version of Katherine”

Pastor K nodded along in response, then countered with “Hm. Well, I don’t think Mae is a short version of Margaret”

“That’s fair”

And scene. That’s how it felt anyway, the two of them just staring at each other at the conclusion of their little… whatever the hell that was. Mac gave a half-heated kicked at nothing in particular and signaled to the Pastor just how awkward the situation was.

“Did you actually need something, Mae?”

Mae thought on that a moment. “I did but then I asked the name thing and… you know? I think I’m gonna be alright”

“Well, good. I think” Pastor K shrugged in response, giving a gentle smile. One that you’d give a small child who’d just scribbled all over the walls with permanent marker when you were too nice a person to punish them for it.

“Yep” Mae coughed out, switching to stare at the floor instead. Yeah. This wasn’t any better than the awkward silence. “I’m really sorry about not knowing your name for like four months straight”

Pastor Katherine’s gentle smile broke into a contained snicker at this. Was she really not mad? This woman was… nice. And weird. And finding Mae’s awkward suffering funny. “Have a good day, Mae” She snickered out, shooing the girl away while she set herself back to her work.

Mae gave a last little smile before hurrying on back to the entrance to head out into town once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Perfect example of just expanding on a dialogue. You can probably tell that this one is hardly worth adding as its own story.
> 
> It's not wrong though. Replay NITW and meet Pastor K again, she really does refer to herself as both Kate and Karen in the same conversation.


	5. Freakshow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lori's always been my favorite NITW character.

It’s a dark one. That’s what happens when you go walking around at 1 AM. It was also the entire point though, so that was pretty alright.

As it stood, Mae was doing her best to not think about how the woods lined either side of the train tracks she was currently walking down. There was a nice feeling knowing that they were safer now that she and her friends had dropped a cave on a cult, or, well, the cult dropped the cave on themselves. Either or. The point was that it was safer now.

On the other hand, they’d dropped a cave on a cult and never really double checked it. There could definitely be someone lurking around out here who could just run up and stab her or something.

To be fair though people could do that during the day, too. Mae was especially stabbable. So it was just for the best to not think about that sort of thing.

She came to a stop only when she’d cleared the treeline, which of course meant she had a clear view of the abandoned glass factory. Always meant to take Gregg and look around in there. Maybe Bea too if she felt up to it, but they just… never did. Man, thinking about Gregg was going to ruin her already somber mood.

She was about half a thought away from hopping onto the tracks and turning around to head home when the sight of a sleeping figure exactly where her foot would have landed gave her pause. Well, more like it cause Mae to violently yank herself back as she had already been mid-way through the action. No harm no foul. Slight spook.

Mae gave a sigh and nudge Lori’s shoe with her boot.

“Hey, creep, wake up” Mae whispered. Wait, she wasn’t supposed to whisper to wake someone up. I mean, not yell, but… she knelt down to shake Lori’s arm, “Come on, you’re gonna get hit by a train or something”

Lori flinched awake almost immediately, uncurling and rubbing at her eye like it was just the most natural thing in the world. It took her a few moments to process that it was Mae who woke her up, but even then… “I’ll be fine” She said, stopping only to let out a yawn. “I do this all the time”

“On the tracks though?” Mae asked, lending a hand to help her up.

“Well not usually, but most of the trains stop running this time of year, and it’s probably not gonna be warm enough to sleep out here again until spring” Lori mumbled out. She certainly wasn’t acting as drowsy as she looked.

Maybe that was a side effect of sleeping down on the tracks. Gotta be ready for anything in case of a mugger or something. “It just seems stupid is all. Like a really easy way to get killed”

Lori shrugged. “It’s kind of thrilling. Like I could wake up all bloody, missing my arms and just screech at people”

“Oh yeah I could see that” Mae nodded along. “I once saw a video of some guy who got stuck in front of a subway train, and he just laid down in the middle of the tracks and it went right over him. Like, I didn’t want to see him die or anything, but it’s kind of weird to think that there’s all that open space”

“Hmm” Lori parsed this over, slightly disappointed at the thought. She eventually shrugged and started walking, which prompted Mae to follow after her. “Hey, what are you doing out here anyway?”

“What are  _ you _ doing out here?”

“Sleeping on the tracks”

“Fair” Stupid question, really. Still. “I don’t really know. Just walking around and thinking I guess” Mae sighed, lolling her head back and forth while they went.

Not that she was even trying to hide that she was bummed, but Mae didn’t actually expect it to show. She was just kind of perpetually bummed, so it came as a surprise when Lori asked “Is something wrong?”

The question made her eyes widen. Just a bit. “I don’t know? Kind of? I mean, there’s nothing wrong with just walking around at night, right?”

“If you wanna get caught by something, sure”

“Well then why do you-” Mae started to ask, before remembering just who she was talking to. Redundant question. “Right, right. Fine”

She took a moment to collect her thoughts, and with a deep breath she just… spat them all out. “You know Gregg? And Angus? They’re in that online chat we usually talk in. They’re moving in a few days. And I guess I’m just thinking about how they’re leaving and I’m… just stuck here”

Lori glanced over with a raised eyebrow. “Really? You don’t seem stuck”

“I’m pretty stuck” Mae said flatly. “How do you figure?”

“Well…” Lori paused, thinking on it quietly. It just left the two of them making their way down the tracks. “I always sorta… looked up to you. How you could… like... do anything”

That, that made Mae stop in her tracks. Which then forced her to run a short bit to catch up. “Seriously? I don’t though. I don’t do anything”

“Yeah, but you  _ could _ ” Lori clarified. “You’re all wise to the world in the weird ways that matter, and you’re really really good at just talking to people. Better than anyone else I know at that. You don’t seem like you  _ would _ , but it feels like you  _ could _ leave any day and end up alright wherever you go”

“Huh” Well… yeah. If she put it that way then Mae couldn’t really argue any of that. It didn’t really fix things, but she’d be lying if she said there wasn’t a certain warmth in her stomach from the compliment. “Yeah well… I can’t. I can’t go anywhere else”

“Why not?”

Mae glared. “Are you like trying to make me run away from Possum Springs?”

“No no no just…” Lori started verbally backpedaling, which in turn wiped the look off Mae’s face and reminded her to not do that around this girl. “I think you beat yourself up a lot, and you shouldn’t” Lori explained.

“You beat yourself up all the time” Mae countered.

“Yeah but I’m like objectively gross”

Mae gave a mock-groan. “You’re not! You see? This is what I’m talking about!”

And now it was Lori who stopped walking, eyes now to the ground. Breathing just a bit too fast. Something Mae was very much familiar with by now. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry”

“Hey, hey, calm down. It’s cool, sorry” Crap. Too far. Too… too everything, really. Mae waited with her, mumbling “Deep breaths” every few moments while Lori caught her breath.

Lori nodded along, shutting her eyes and keeping her head down while she tried to relax. She nodded a few times when Mae spoke, and kept doing it when Mae stopped. Probably just mentally prepping herself up.

“You’re...” Breath. “... getting good at this”

“I guess it just comes with hanging around you” Mae gave a deep breath of her own, ever so slightly relieved. She was used to this by now, but still. “But yeah the point is you probably think I have stuff way more figured out than I really do. Like, all of us adults? We’re just winging it. I’m just good at winging things”

“Then…” Breath “... you’re a good…” Breath “... adult”

Again, Mae’s eyes widened. She didn’t have anything to say again, and so she waited until Lori was calm enough to continue on.

So they kept walking down the tracks, this time in silence. Lori was just used to this, while Mae… well she more to think about. It didn’t change anything right now, but like… it was something to think on. Would it sound too cheesy to say it made her more hopeful, in a way?

The two eventually followed the tracks into the neighborhood they passed through. A quaint little place Mae used to explore when she was too young to remember. She didn’t actually know which street was Lori’s, but she did recognize the name was out here somewhere.

“Thanks for making sure I don’t get hit by a train” Lori suddenly said, turning off the tracks and heading deeper into the neighborhood. Probably safe to say their little walk was done.

“Any time, freakshow” Mae said back. She gave an unseen wave and turned to head back down the path she’d come.

“See you tomorrow, killer!” Lori’s voice called back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really DID plan out a lot of the third The Next Few Months story. A lot harder to do considering I don't like making conflicts from nowhere. NITW is good for that, it leaves a lot of things unanswered for people like me to mess with. Without Andy's personal issues or Mae's mental health to work off, it felt way too forced to make a story. Still got a real good amount of progress in.
> 
> I also couldn't find anywhere in it to include this chapter, and that sucked a fat one.


	6. Pit Stop

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If only we had a few more months, we could've finally gone on that road trip we were talking about. Remember the road trip?

Mae rocked back and forth on her heels, watching impatiently as Bea stared at the gas pump waiting for the flow to stop.

The two of them would occasionally make eye contact, then go back to what they were doing just as fast. Not that there was any awkwardness of course, at least not anymore than you could usually get standing in silence with someone. At a crummy gas station. In the middle of nowhere.

Well that’s not fair either. The scenery wasn’t bad, but wide open field with a gas station in it thing was kind of old by now.

Okay well this was going nowhere. Mae kicked a pebble, took a quick look around, and walked towards the little gas station store. These kinds of stores probably had a real name, but… gas store? Was it just a convenient store maybe?

She walked inside and immediately spotted the half asleep fifty-something looking attendant leaning back at the front counter, staring at a crappy old crt tv half the size of Mae’s head.

“Hey, what do you call this place?” She asked.

The old timer glanced up at her from the screen and mumbled “This is a gas station”

“Good to know”

So she wandered down the collective three aisles of candy, chips, a few things she didn’t recognize, and… ugh, there packs of soda just among the rest of the junk food. Not that she disliked soda mind you, but they just stocked it out where it was warm? What’s even the point?

Oh, there was an ever familiar looking tiny blue bag of cookies. Right, no longer being made, do not eat. Good to know.

What else…

The bell overhead the gas station’s entrance jingled, and while Mae scanned over the rest of the aisle’s goodies Bea eventually came up and stood at her side.

Mae had just picked up two separate bags, one for cheesy puff dogs, one for extra zesty chips. She didn’t actually know what zest itself meant, but god did it taste good.

“Still deciding?” Bea asked.

Mae shrugged and set the puff dogs down. “I could probably just rob this place if I had to”

Bea’s eyes went wide for a moment while Mae went back to scoring the shelves. “Mae”

“Yeah?”

“Shut up”

Mae rolled her eyes and picked up one of the warm packs of cola from the shelves, waving it to show Bea the injustice being performed her. “Seriously though!”

“I’m serious too” Bea chastised.

Mae gave a huff and set what she’d collected so far down on the shelves. “I don’t mean shoplifting. Like, if I was a bandit with a gun and a mask and everything. I could definitely make a clean getaway”

Bea sighed and settled on looking through the shelves for something of her own with her back to Mae who was doing the same on the opposite side. “Can you not talk about this when the owner’s like fifteen feet away?” She whispered.

“Don’t you ever imagine what heroic stuff you’d do if someone broke into your apartment?” Mae asked, turning and tapping Bea on the shoulder to show her a pair of star shaped pink sunglasses. “I did that all the time back in school. This is like that”

Bea took the sunglasses, looked them over, then held them up over her eyes without putting them on. “Sometimes. I’m pretty sure you can still get arrested for talking about wanting to rob the place that you’re standing in. Or thrown out at least. Yeah, no to these” She added in, handing them back.

Mae shrugged and set the sunglasses back in their spot. “You’re saying you wouldn’t vouch for me?”

“What I’m saying is that if the cops are called I’m leaving you here” Bea said, before making her way around to the freezer to find an actually cold drink.

Mae followed, as she usually did. “You’d pay my bail”

“I’d tell your parents and  _ they’d _ pay your bail” Bea clarified, pulling out one ice cold cola can and tossing Mae another. “I don’t think I could afford to pay your bail”

“Really? How much is bail?”

“What, for petty theft? Uh…” Bea trailed off, tapping her finger against the can. “Actually? I don’t know off the top of my head. Probably like a hundred bucks, tops? That’s if they even allow bail for something that small”

“Oh so you’re just being cheap. You could  _ definitely _ afford that” Mae snarked.

Bea shut the freezer and lead the way around the store back towards the front. “Yeah probably. But maybe some time in jail would do you some good”

“So no bail?”

“No bail, so stop talking about stealing stuff before you get us in trouble” Bea whispered one last time before the two arrived at the front counter.

She set out what they had to buy, just as Mae chimed in “Are you on your period or something?” at which point she found the strength to wordlessly glare at her tiny companion. Mae at least took the hint and shut up.

For a moment anyway.

Bea only just began digging through her pocket for her wallet when Mae asked “Why do you think they call it that?”

“Call what what?”

“A period” Mae said, in an obnoxious matter-of-factly tone. “I’d call it bloodday. Or blood week”

Bea fished out her wallet, tapped the counter to get the shopkeeper’s attention, and pointed a thumb at Mae.

“Can I sell her to you?”

“I don’t want her” he replied without missing a beat.

Bea shrugged a mock disappointed shrug and went about finishing up. “Fair enough”

* * *

 

Both car doors were shut, at least one seat belt was on, and the two of them each took a deep breath while the car pulled back out onto the open road.

This would probably be better themed if Bea’s car was a convertible, a fact Mae had complained about more than once. Who went on a road trip without a convertible?

On the other hand, there was still something nice about staring out the window at nothing, driving nowhere and talking about nothing with the only person that really mattered.

Mae pulled the star shaped pink sunglasses out of her pocket, put them on for just a second, then offered them over to Bea who shook her head briefly in disappointment before accepting them.

And of course Mae grinned when she actually put them on and a dull smile came to Bea’s face.

It was just… so freaking nice to see her without bags under her eyes. Like everything that had lead up to  _ right now _ was just worth it.

So Mae leaned back and sank into her seat, getting comfortable. “I’m glad we did this” She mumbled.

“Yeah” Bea nodded along. Her smile grew, just a bit, and she relaxed back into her own seat. “Me too”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This wasn't meant for the big story. It wasn't even meant to be put up here. I just felt like writing one day, and I missed MaeBea. I wrote this little one-shot just for me myself and I. It made me happy. It also made me think... Fuck it, right? Longest Night was coming up, so I fleshed out most of the other dialogues I had laying around and put them all together to make this.
> 
> I know I've been brief on what the third story would've been. Haven't wanted to say much since hey, it's still not off the table exactly, just... You know. Don't count on it. I hate saying that. Night in the Woods is what got me back into writing after years of just... not. And I do love writing, I hate to say goodbye to anything. I'm always going to be working on something. I'm sure I'll come back to NITW eventually. Helps nobody to set expectations though.
> 
> Been thinking of doing something with Portal.
> 
> Happy Longest Night.


End file.
